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Road maintenance policies – Edinburgh Council

This page refers to road resurfacing or reconstruction, not to pothole filling. Priorities for road resurfacing are decided once a year, based on an algorithm which depends on road condition, type of road and traffic usage; and capital funds are used.

Pothole filling uses a completely different process, including responding to user feedback, and comes from revenue money. Pothole problems can be reported on the council website here – phone numbers are included for urgent cases.

For several years (at least 5!) Spokes argued hard for roads which are particularly important for cycling to be given a special cycle weighting in the algorithm which prioritises roads for resurfacing. Eventually, in 2014, we succeeded – the story is here. It is a good example of the importance of consistency, continuity and persistence in campaigning! Edinburgh is, so far, the only council we have heard of with such a policy.

Subsequent developments are below, most recent first, and show how a policy can be improved through experience and persistence…

1707 Spokes letter seeking further improvements in the cycle-weighting policy.

1601 Revised ATAP [Action C15, page 40] commits to assess roads being resurfaced under the capital roads replacement programme to see what cycling (or walking) improvements can be incorporated, rather than just resurfacing with the same layout as before. This was a policy change we had long argued for.